Company briefs

Poker machine billionaire
Bruce Mathieson
and former Billabong director Scott Perrin have taken a strategic stake in Northern Territory-focused iron ore developer
Western Desert Resources
. The pair control Permat Holdings, which has agreed to take a placement of shares worth about $12 million to help Western Desert explore and develop the Roper Bar Iron Ore project in Northern Territory, which has aJoint Ore Reserve Committee inferred and indicated mineral resource of 310 million tonnes. Dan Hall

Japanese giants Sumitomo Corporation and Kansai Electric Power Company have acquired
Ric Stowe
’s Bluewaters power station in Western Australia for an enterprise value of about $1.2 billion, sources said on Friday. Sumitomo already holds a 50 per cent stake in a gas fired power station south of Perth, in collaboration with Queensland-based
ERM Power
. Debts on the Bluewaters power station, which in part supplies
Newmont
’s massive Boddington goldmine, were thought to be up to $1 billion. Peter Kerr

Merredin Energy has signed an agreement with Palisade Investment Partners to part-fund the 82MW peak power station in the wheat belt east of Perth. Palisade will help fund the $100 million project, while
Commonwealth Bank
is providing project financing. Khia Mercer

Foster
’s Group has won a major battle against the Australian Tax Office, which has been pursuing Australia’s biggest brewer for up to $850.7 million over financing losses dating to when it was part of
John Elliott
’s Elders IXL empire. The full Federal Court of Australia rejected on Friday an appeal by the ATO, which wanted Foster’s to pay tax and interest relating to deductions and losses claimed between 1995 and 2004. Foster’s is in line to receive $256.7 million it has already paid the ATO.

Julie-ann Sprague

Air New Zealand
and Etihad Airways said they had received approval from the New Zealand government for a code share pact to start on April 18. Etihad will code share on Air NZ’s trans-Tasman and domestic services, and the antipodean airline will code share on Etihad flights between Australia and Abu Dhabi and on to London. Andrew Cleary